PHA targeting state tax returns to recoup bad debts

The Peoria Housing Authority will soon have a way to collect unpaid bills left by former tenants. The authority recently completed an application for the Local Debt Recovery Program offered by the state. It will allow the PHA to recover the debts of former tenants through state tax returns. Brenda Coates is the Chief Executive Officer of the authority.

"Any funds that we can recoup with reductions in funding, but also if tenants owe us money, there will be a data base. Any money that we can recoup is going to be helpful for us.”

Coates says the PHA should start recovering money it’s owed in 2014.

In other business, the authority board tabled a motion to revise its trespass policy until next month. The board is still considering options for a public appeals process that would allow people to get off the trespass list.

Anyone wanting off the list currently has to go through the PHA’s Safety and Security Administrator. Opponents have said that doesn’t allow for due process, and threatened to file complaints with the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as the American Civil Liberties Union.